Energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXRD) is known in the art as a method for measuring properties of crystalline samples. An X-ray source generates a polychromatic X-ray beam, which is incident on a sample being examined. X-rays are diffracted from the sample over a range of angles with respect to the incident beam. An energy-dispersive X-ray detector is arranged to capture the diffracted X-ray beam at a certain angle. The detector is used to measure the diffracted beam intensity as a function of photon energy, and thus to provide a spectrum of the diffracted X-rays.
An exemplary EDXRD system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,850. EDXRD may be used, inter alia, for analyzing thin films, as described, for example, by Albertini et al., in “Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Diffraction on Thin Films and Its Application to Superconducting Samples,” Journal of Applied Crystallography 36 (2003), pages 43-47. This article and the above-mentioned patent are incorporated herein by reference.